Eligibility Criteria

IQA PLAYER ELIGIBILITY (National Teams and International Contests for Individuals)

The IQA notes that some quizzers will choose to play for countries other than those in which they were born. Our rules are based on an independent report submitted to FIFA (14 ‘Sept 2010), made after a comparison of nationality rules used by FIFA, UEFA, and the IOC made in light of a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling the option to change nationality must be available to athletes.

Please note: with all IQA rules, our aim is to be gender neutral (unless there are overwhelming, practical reasons to distinguish the sexes). Accordingly, where in this document the word “he” or “his” appears, this can be taken to read “she” and “her” also.

N.B. where the rules make mention of ‘national teams’, this should read as senior national sides only and by inference teams playing in IQA-sanctioned competitions. Since the EQC Nations Tournament was restricted to senior sides only from 2006 onwards, the only officially sanctioned contests involving ‘junior’ national sides has been the EQC’s ‘Aspirational Cup’.

IQA Rules
1. When playing in international competition as an individual, a person may choose to represent any country whose senior national team he is eligible to play for, regardless of whether he has been selected to play in said team.

2. Each national team must be selected from players who hold the nationality of its country and who comply with the provisions of paragraphs a. to b. below.

(a)(i). A player holding a permanent nationality that is not dependent on residence in a certain country is eligible to play for and or represent that country.

(ii). Subject to the conditions in paragraph 4 below, any player who has already participated in a match (either in full or in part) in an official IQA competition for one national team may not play an international match for a representative team of another country.

(b). A player may represent more than one Association so long as that player, in addition to having the relevant nationality, fulfils at least one of the following conditions:

(i). His birth is in the territory of the relevant Association;
(ii). Either his biological mother or father was born in the territory of the Association;
(iii). Either his grandmother or grandfather were born in the territory of the Association; or
(iv). The player has lived continuously in the territory of the Association for at least two (2) years.

3. A player who assumes a new nationality and who has not already participated in a match for another Association, is eligible to play for a new Association so long as he satisfies one of the following conditions:

(a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association;

(b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association;

(c) his grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association; or
(d) He has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant Association.

4. If a Player has more than one nationality, or if a Player acquires a new nationality, or if a Player is eligible to play for several representative teams due to nationality, he may, only once, request to change the Association for which he is eligible to play international matches to the Association of another country of which he holds nationality, subject to the following conditions:
(a) He has not played a match (either in full or in part) in an official competition for his current Association, and at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an international match in an official competition for his current Association, he already had the nationality of the representative team for which he wishes to play.
(b) He is not permitted to play for his new Association in any (ongoing) competition in which he has already played for his previous Association.
(c) The IQA requires that any change in Association be agreed between the player’s existing and desired national bodies. Only if both freely agree to a change will the IQA recognise it. Any such changes shall be duly notified to the IQA and will only come into force when details are recorded in the schedule to these rules.
(d) A player who has exercised their right to switch teams/Associations must wait a minimum of three calendar years before making any subsequent switch, the time to run from when their latest change is recorded in the schedule to these rules.

Schedule: details of quizzers who have switched teams/Associations.

Barry Simmons. From England to Scotland, effective 1 July 2010.

List Ends.

Great Britain Associations

The IQA notes that in June 2010 FIFA approved an amendment to eligibility ruling 15 (d) of the agreement between the Four British Associations [analogous to IQA rule 2(b)]…
“Under Article 15 of the FIFA regulations, a player who is eligible to represent more than one association on account of British nationality shall now be assessed according to the following criteria:
a ) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association
b ) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association
c ) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association
d ) He has engaged in a minimum of 5 years education under the age of 18 within the territory of the relevant Association.”

The original head d) had specified “…Primary and/or Secondary education…”